


Two Weddings and...

by Somniare



Series: Phrase Challenge [10]
Category: Lewis (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, Jumping to Conclusions, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-29
Updated: 2015-04-29
Packaged: 2018-03-26 07:50:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3842848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Somniare/pseuds/Somniare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“A wedding, gentlemen?”  The shocked words were out of Jean’s mouth before she could stop herself.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Weddings and...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [perclexed](https://archiveofourown.org/users/perclexed/gifts).



* * *

Jean Innocent stretched as she got out of the car.  While she didn’t mind the occasional drive out to High Wycombe, she couldn’t help thinking the sooner John Lewis opened a store in Oxford, the better.  She headed straight for the escalators.  _First things first._   She’d finalise her nephew’s gift, then she could browse at her leisure.

She turned a half-circle at the top of the escalator and head towards the far wall where The Gift List office was nestled.  She came to a sharp stop beside a white leather three-seater couch.  However, it wasn’t the furniture that had caught her eye.  Seated at one of the customer service desks inside The Gift List were Lewis and Hathaway.

Lewis was smiling happily, while James was paying great attention to the young man serving them.  Jean moved closer.

“We’ll contact you after the wedding to make delivery arrangements,” she heard the smartly dressed young man tell Lewis.

“A wedding, gentlemen?”  The shocked words were out of Jean’s mouth before she could stop herself.  Two heads snapped around to look at her.  They both nodded.  Neither looked perturbed to see her.  She felt her indignation rise.  “Don’t you think I should have had some advance warning of this development?”

James frowned and looked at Lewis, who shrugged.

“You signed our leave forms, ma’am,” Lewis said.  “Isn’t that all the notice you need?”

“Inspector Lewis, I can’t believe for one moment you could honestly believe–”

“Excuse me, ma’am.”  James’s voice was just loud enough to be heard.  Jean glared at him.  He wore the relieved expression of a man who’d worked out a puzzle.  She nodded once and tried to ignore the rising feeling of unease.  “We’re here about Lyn’s wedding, ma’am.”

“Lyn?”

“My daughter, ma’am.”  Lewis held her gaze.

She looked from Lewis to James and back again.  “Not you…”  She waved one finger hesitantly between the two men.  James blushed.  Lewis’s eyes opened wide.  Jean held her handbag in front of her, clasped the straps in both hands and twisted them.  “Well, this is awkward…” she murmured.

Lewis nodded.  James's expression was now irritatingly neutral.

Taking a steadying breath, Jean asked, “When is Lyn’s happy day?”

“Five weeks away, which is when Hathaway and I are both off for three weeks.”

“Oh.  Right.”  Jean remembered the leave applications she’d signed for both Lewis and Hathaway several weeks earlier.  “Are you both off for the wedding?”

“Aye; I'm father of the bride, and James is going to be Jack's godfather, so he's invited as well.”

Jean stared at James.  “Godfather?”

“They made me an offer I couldn't refuse,” James quipped.

Lewis and the young man – Jean noted his name badge read William – both snorted.  Jean rolled her eyes.

None of that, however, explained, to Jean’s way of thinking, one odd fact.  She looked pointedly at Lewis.  “If it’s your daughter’s wedding, why will the store be contacting you about delivery?  Surely that’s for your daughter and son-in-law to arrange?”

Lewis looked at James.  Despite all the years she’d known them, Jean still had no idea what passed between them in moments like this.  In many ways, she envied their connection.  Lewis’s posture shifted slightly.  He could have been about to deliver a case briefing.  If she were more cynical, Jean could almost believe he’d rehearsed what he was going to say.

“They’re going to the US for three weeks for their honeymoon.  Part of my gift to them is to get their back garden in order for the outdoor setting they have on their list.  Lyn only agreed to let me do it if James was there to help.  We’ll be housesitting while they’re away – Jack’s going to stay with Tim’s parents – so I told Lyn we’d also see to it all the gifts arrived safely to save them dealing with it when they got back.  Sort of extending their honeymoon a bit.”

“Oh.  Well.  That’s very…thoughtful.”

“I thought so, too, ma’am,” James replied sincerely.

“But why are you both here today?” Jean asked.  “Surely it wasn’t necessary for both of you to come?”

James turned slightly and leant against the back of his chair with one arm draped lazily over the back.  “We–”  He waggled a finger between himself and Lewis, “are going halves in the aforementioned outdoor setting.  Inspector Lewis was reluctant to purchase online–”

“I like to see and try what I’m buying,” Lewis interjected with a small frown of frustration at James.  Obviously, it had been a cause of disagreement between the two men, though Jean understood Lewis’s position; buying in person was her preferred option too.

James blinked at Lewis, slowly, and continued.  “As I agreed to go halves, it was, therefore, necessary for me to be here today.”  James held up his credit card.  It must have been in his hand all along, as he definitely hadn’t produced his wallet at any stage.

“I want everything to be just so for Lyn,” Lewis said firmly.

_Of course he did._   Jean smiled in understanding. 

“I’ll leave you to it, then.  I’m here to choose a gift for my nephew’s wedding myself.”  She waved a hand in the direction of another young man who was waiting for a customer.  “I’m sorry for the misunderstanding.”  She accepted their smiles as acknowledgement and made her way to the second desk, biting back a smile as she did so.  Yes, she’d made a bit of a faux pas today; however, she was still absolutely convinced there was more to Lewis and Hathaway’s relationship than either of them was prepared to say.  Jean would bide her time.  The truth would come out eventually.

 

**********

 

James tucked his wallet back into his pocket as Lewis rose, shook William’s hand, and thanked him for his assistance.  James stood to follow Lewis out and they were stopped by William’s quiet words.

“I hope you’ll consider us for your own Gift List…should you ever decide you need one.”

James's first reaction was to locate Innocent.  He released his breath when he saw she was focussed on the monitor at the other desk, nodding at whatever she was being told.  Then James looked to Lewis for his response.

“Might just do that for me retirement,” Lewis said with a smile.  “Could you see Innocent’s face?”  He grinned at James.  James snorted softly.

“Oh,” William stuttered.  “I’m sorry… I thought… oh, God, I’m so sorry.”

“You’re all right, lad,” Lewis reassured him.  “No harm done.”

James followed Lewis past the current display of outdoor furniture, where they had another look at the setting they’d just purchased for Lyn, before heading down the escalator and out of the store.  Neither spoke as they headed for Lewis’s car.  There was no need to.

James gazed out of the side window as Lewis steered the car onto the M40.  He was looking forward to their three-week break in Manchester.  The first week wouldn’t be much of a holiday, with brambles and a very resilient rhododendron needing to be dug out before the new paving stones for the outdoor setting to sit on could go down, but once that was done they could relax and enjoy each other away from curious eyes.  They could simply be Robbie and James.

Without turning his head, James reached across and unerringly found Lewis’s knee.  Lewis squeezed his hand.

“Did Innocent and that William thinking you and I might be getting married bother you?” Lewis asked quietly.  “You’ve been very quiet.”

This time, James did look at Lewis, whose attention was fixed on the road.  James considered the morning’s events.  “It didn’t ‘bother’ me, as such.”  He huffed.  “I was surprised to see Innocent, and the assumption she made makes me think she suspects there’s something going on between us.  It could make things…awkward.”

“She might be stuck behind a desk, but she’s still a better than good detective.”

“True.”

“Have you ever thought about it?”

“About what?”

“Getting married.”

“It’d be a bit hard to stay under the radar if we were to take that step.  There’d be a lot of fallout to deal with.”  James would gladly shout their relationship from the rooftops – he was certain Lewis would too – if they could be certain it wouldn’t have major repercussions.  Lyn knew: it was one of the main reasons she and Tim had chosen James to be Jack’s godfather.  However, where work and others were concerned, caution and care had been deemed necessary by James and Lewis.

“That’s not quite what I asked you,” Lewis said.

James shifted in the car seat, turning his body towards Lewis as much as he could.  With Lewis – his partner, friend, lover – facing resolutely forward, James had to rely on other signals to read what Lewis was trying to say.  What James saw intrigued him.

“How long have you been thinking about getting married?” James asked hesitantly.  A pink bloom began to spread across the top of Lewis’s cheek below his eye.

“I…ah.”  Lewis glanced quickly at James.

“Robbie?”  James eyes darted over Lewis’s face as Lewis pulled the car onto the hard shoulder and turned on the hazard warning lights.  “Um, you shouldn’t stop here.”

“I can’t drive and have this conversation, pet.”

That was when James noticed Lewis’s hands were shaking.  James clasped Lewis’s left hand between his hands.  “Are you all right?” James asked worriedly.

“Aye.”  Lewis’s voice held a slight tremor.  He took a deep breath, and then another.  “It’s not so much that I’ve been thinking about marriage – well, I have, but I didn’t know if you…”  Lewis folded his other hand over James’s clasped ones.  “Today... Innocent, then the lad… the way we’ve been tiptoeing around.  I don’t want to do it anymore, James.  I don’t want us to be a secret any longer.”

“But if we were to–”

“I know we’d have to make changes, but if you’re right and Innocent already suspects, it won’t come as a shock to her.  There’ll be options work-wise, and if not we’ll find something else.  I’ll ask you again: have you ever thought about getting married?”

“Yes,” James answered, without hesitation.  He’d contemplated the possibility several times, but for reasons he couldn’t explain to himself, James had never considered Lewis would have wanted to take that path a second time.  As he had no doubt of Lewis’s commitment to him, James had pushed the idea to the back of his mind.

“Yes?”

James nodded.

Lewis released James’s hands and then gently cradled James’s face between his palms.  “You’ve never said anything,” he whispered.

James half-closed his eyes and leant into one of Lewis’s hands.  “It’s not the sort of thing we talk about,” he murmured.

“No, we don’t, do we?”  Lewis leant across and kissed James tenderly.  “Maybe we should make an exception for this.”  His lips brushed against James’s as he spoke.

James smiled.  “Home, Robbie?”

“Home, James.”

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt: “Well, this is awkward…”


End file.
